Transfers to Cruise

[TheSaint]

Hi Folks,

I am staying in Port Orleans Riverside prior to a 3 day cruise in April.

I just realised that the transfers from Disney property aren't great, it seems those staying on site get tot he ship quite late.

Has anyone done the 2 hop - Disney to MCO; MCO to Port Canaveral?

If so, how did it work? Did you use the Magical Express to take you to MCO or did you make your own way there? and how frequent are the transfers to the cruise from MCO.

Thanks!

 

[dcassetta]

Hi Folks,

I am staying in Port Orleans Riverside prior to a 3 day cruise in April.

I just realised that the transfers from Disney property aren't great, it seems those staying on site get tot he ship quite late.

Has anyone done the 2 hop - Disney to MCO; MCO to Port Canaveral?

If so, how did it work? Did you use the Magical Express to take you to MCO or did you make your own way there? and how frequent are the transfers to the cruise from MCO.

Thanks!

You will need to make up a fake flight time to give Disney to catch the ME to MCO. Or you could take a cab/uber.

The buses to the ship start running after 9am and the last one generally leaves the airport about 2pm.

 

[Capitalangel]

I know it is not what you asked but last Feb we booked FL tours to pick us up and take us to the port. We picked the time we wanted to be picked up and they were great! It was close to the cost of the cruise transfer but we had total control

 

[jdb in AZ]

It's a lot of bother to get up early enough to get to the airport to get an early DCL bus. If you really want to get to the port early, you can take a limo service, rent a car, or stay at a hotel in Port Canaveral the night before.

 

[Starwind]

You will need to make up a fake flight time to give Disney to catch the ME to MCO. Or you could take a cab/uber.

The buses to the ship start running after 9am and the last one generally leaves the airport about 2pm.

You do NOT need to give a fake time to Disney to book DME. Just explain you are returning to the airport but will not be flying out and you want to leave your resort around X time [or conversely, arrive at the airport at X time -- they will work with you on which info they need].

We have twice done the following:

Stay at WDW resort, checkout day before cruise. Evening before cruise, take DME back to airport, spend night at Hyatt inside MCO airport. Take first or second DCL transfer bus to port in the morning.

Note if you want to be on the early buses to the port, there is already an established crowd/"line" by 8:30 am [not a physical line as they don't let you line up until 9]. We arrived the second time at about 8 am and there were already people waiting. People note the order people arrive in, and when they start issuing the cards for which bus you are on, people seemed to go up in the order of arriving.

It IS a hassle. While it worked for us for those two cruises - we had specific reasons we wanted to be on board early - for future cruises we are taking DCL transfers from our WDW hotel and arriving later. The fact that many activities that you used to have to book onboard can now be booked online helps considerably. Also, arriving very early to the port means a lot of waiting in a port terminal that keeps getting more crowded, then having to fight through the crowd to even get on th boat when your boarding number is called. We have decided for us that we would rather arrive later when there is basically no crowd, checkin and go straight on the boat, dump our bags in the room, then grab food and do the couple things we need to do in person.

SW

 

[lanejudy]

Has anyone done the 2 hop - Disney to MCO; MCO to Port Canaveral?

If so, how did it work? Did you use the Magical Express to take you to MCO or did you make your own way there? and how frequent are the transfers to the cruise from MCO.

Depending on your party size, it may be similar cost (or less) to hire a car service direct from your resort to the port. Much less time-intensive as well. Resort -> MCO -> Port is twice a long riding on a bus, plus getting up super early to catch ME to the airport early enough to wait for the first DCL bus.

But to answer your questions... yes you can take ME to the airport or you can use Uber/Lyft/taxi. The first DCL bus departs around 9:15am and run approximately every 20 minutes or sooner if full. As a PP mentions, the "line" starts to build around 8:30am.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[dcassetta]

You do NOT need to give a fake time to Disney to book DME. Just explain you are returning to the airport but will not be flying out and you want to leave your resort around X time [or conversely, arrive at the airport at X time -- they will work with you on which info they need].

We have twice done the following:

Stay at WDW resort, checkout day before cruise. Evening before cruise, take DME back to airport, spend night at Hyatt inside MCO airport. Take first or second DCL transfer bus to port in the morning.

Note if you want to be on the early buses to the port, there is already an established crowd/"line" by 8:30 am [not a physical line as they don't let you line up until 9]. We arrived the second time at about 8 am and there were already people waiting. People note the order people arrive in, and when they start issuing the cards for which bus you are on, people seemed to go up in the order of arriving.

It IS a hassle. While it worked for us for those two cruises - we had specific reasons we wanted to be on board early - for future cruises we are taking DCL transfers from our WDW hotel and arriving later. The fact that many activities that you used to have to book onboard can now be booked online helps considerably. Also, arriving very early to the port means a lot of waiting in a port terminal that keeps getting more crowded, then having to fight through the crowd to even get on th boat when your boarding number is called. We have decided for us that we would rather arrive later when there is basically no crowd, checkin and go straight on the boat, dump our bags in the room, then grab food and do the couple things we need to do in person.

SW

Thanks for the info. We have not used ME in several years, but when we last did were told we have to provide a flight number to schedule pick-up. I'm glad that has changed.

 

[apathetic]

People go through a lot to get on the ship maybe an hour early. We've done the DCL bus several times and usually get there 1230-1pm. They don't start boarding until around 1130 and usually are in open boarding when the buses get there. I can see the private limo/shuttle option, but taking multiple buses just for an hour on the ship seems like a hassle. For what? The pool that 1,000 other people already occupy? Lunch that is still served when the bus gets there?

 

[Starwind]

People go through a lot to get on the ship maybe an hour early. We've done the DCL bus several times and usually get there 1230-1pm. They don't start boarding until around 1130 and usually are in open boarding when the buses get there. I can see the private limo/shuttle option, but taking multiple buses just for an hour on the ship seems like a hassle. For what? The pool that 1,000 other people already occupy? Lunch that is still served when the bus gets there?

For us it was trying to accomplish several things in the limited hours that those things were available or before they "sold out", including: signing up for activities at guest services, signing up for activities at port adventure desk, going to dining change session [limited hours], eating lunch in MDR [limited hours], doing the walking tour [actually, we ran out of time and could't do that, even having arrived on the first bus].

Now that the signing up can be done online as part of checkin, that frees up a chunk of time. And we've done the tour, so no need for it for us [plus on some cruises it is repeated the next day if you miss it the first day]. So the only things we need to accomplish are the dining changes session and eating in the MDR. The MDR can be tight because it is only open until 2, but cabanas is able to accommodate food allergies if necessary. So for our future cruises we will just do the transfer from the hotel to the port -- arriving in the 1230 - 100 range would be ideal, but even later would work.

SW

 

[TheSaint]

Thanks for all the replies folks - that confirms a lot of my thoughts.

I actually have the transfers to the port already paid for from the hotel but was wondering whether to alter this. That said, Disney are unaware of these transfers but they are on my receipt from the travel agent so I need to get back on to the agent to get the message to Disney!